Pocket Watch
by Kyuubi's Angel of Darkness
Summary: Because if Levi went for it, those moments could become even more precious and special. Because if he backed down then someone else would take Mikasa and that was a notion that drove him even crazier than any dream, stomach cramp, or bratty soldier.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all! As summer has rolled in I found myself to have more time for writing and so I have finally taken the time to put this new story up that's been siting in my hard drive for a few months now. Since I've been on here I feel my writing style has matured and I hope that will reflect in this as it is first story I'm posting after such an extensive unofficial hiatus. Please enjoy :)**

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The day was an insignificant day as far as days went in the Survey Corps. It was sunny with a mild temperature and temperate breezes. Leaves spiraled lazily from their perches on the branches, green grass swayed easily in the slight wind, and clouds rolled lethargically in the vast sky. Young soldiers ambled about with a relaxed gait to their strolls; enjoying the normality and peacefulness of the scene, and basking in the presence of their close comrades. It wasn't very often that the soldiers who risked their lives to venture outside the walls got to see a peaceful day such as this. They relished it, some even hoping that such a day would never end. To Lance Corporal Levi though, all of this hardly meant anything. It was simply a better day than yesterday, it truly held little more value than others.

Levi sat lounging in his office sipping a brew of gunpowder green tea in the company of one Mikasa Ackerman, the person he seemed to find himself in the company of more often than not these days. They sat relaxed on an old leather love-seat that had been in the office long before Levi had begun using it, maintaining a respectable distance yet still close enough to soak up each other's presence. His arm was slung casually over the back of the couch, leg thrown haphazardly over his knee while Mikasa sat curled up contentedly. He wrinkled his nose slightly at the smokey grass essence currently settling on his taste buds, he honestly preferred the more mild taste of chamomile but it had been Mikasa's turn to pick the flavor and the woman seemed to have a strange affinity for the strong grassy taste. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mikasa give a lazy smirk at his subtle distaste and he rolled his eyes, knocking his knee against her own. She chuckled, he flicked the back of her head impishly. The woman huffed in mock exasperation, eyes going skyward.

Levi wasn't quite sure when they had become so close. Despite having friends and acquaintances their own age, they simply found it natural to drift towards each other when in large crowds. Or any other setting for that matter. Some reasoned that it was their quiet demeanor that led them to stick together. Others said it was their blunt and harsh way of speaking that had people keeping a wide berth, making it inevitable they would speak to each other.

Hanji would joke and call them old souls or kindred spirits and would go on for a few minutes in a tangent about fate. Neither Levi nor Mikasa believed in that kind of superstitious garbage; nor did they really care to listen to it. If anything, the spewed crap about the stars aligning in the right place and 'horoscopes' only further proved Levi's theory that Hanji was deranged. If it had 'horror' as a part of the pronunciation then obviously it wasn't beneficial to a person's wellbeing.

Oftentimes soldiers would whisper rumors about them dating or being lovers. If one was to look at it objectively, it was an understandable assumption; what with humanity's most powerful soldiers being in each other's constant proximity nearly every hour of the day. It was added fuel to the fire as Levi had neither the patience to dispel said rumors nor the mercy to spare for shitty loud-mouthed brats who should be cleaning instead of talking. Mikasa simply didn't care what others thought of her.

There had been no specific time the phenomenon, as their friendship had been dubbed, occurred. There was no special event triggering their conversations that led them to forge this bond. It had come as a shock to both when they sat down to dinner one night and realized they had been off in their own conversation for the entire duration of dinner without a violent fight breaking out, leaving the rest of the Special Ops squad to stare at them oddly.

Mikasa didn't know when she had stopped referring to him as the "irksome shorty who had hurt Eren" and Levi was just as stumped as to when he stopped calling her "that damned disrespectful brat". It had been a natural progression. Maybe they realized they were getting too old for such juvenile treatment, although Mikasa could stand to slide a snide comment in about Levi's height in correlation to his age in that retrospect. Perhaps they had subconsciously needed something more than frustration and exasperation from the person they related to best. Whatever it was, the transition had been natural. Natural and unfamiliar but not entirely unwelcome. People like them needed to cling to natural. Natural was normal, natural was what should have been in this world. They _needed_ normal, and if normal so happened to be a quirky companionship where insults were endearments and affectionate touches were slightly less than broken ribs, then so be it. They could live with that and learn to thrive on it.

Lately though, Levi was beginning to notice something abnormal about his behavior. His stomach flopped oddly when she brushed against him; his chest tightened when she was left sweaty and breathless from a hard days training, clothes sticking to her in an appealing manner; his hands twitched in jealousy when other men approached her. Levi didn't necessarily dislike these feelings, they were abnormal yes but not entirely distasteful. He simply passed them off as lust, after all Mikasa was unquestionably beautiful and he was a healthy man with needs that was frequently in her immediate vicinity. It was a _natural_ development, and did their entire relationship not revolve around them accepting whatever came about? Impulses would be impulses, they would most likely fade. He would never dare act on his desires, lest he ruin this current comfortable lifestyle he shared with her. Not to mention she seemed to only have eyes for that fool Jaeger.

However he was often left to sleepless nights, Mikasa dancing seductively in and out of his dreams when he awoke sweaty, bothered and needing a kind of relief that only she would be able to provide. After nights like those he was never quite able to fully meet her gaze the next morning. It was shameful if he was being honest with himself, but then again Levi had never claimed to be a saintly person. Erotic dreams were natural, and it was natural he would dream about someone he was close to who happened to be very attractive. At least, that is what he would try and continue to delude himself into thinking.

Today's conversation was relaxed, centered around nothing in particular. Mikasa gracefully helped herself to another cup of tea and Levi couldn't help the arrogant little jab that easily slipped out as he tried to coax her into one of their infamous verbal spars.

"Am I such an awe-inspiring figure that you've even picked up my preferred beverage choice?" He smirked slightly as he said it.

"The only thing you inspire is for kids to eat their vegetables, shorty." She retaliated easily as she sipped at her brew, not quite in the mood to start angrily shouting on such a pleasant day.

"Tell that to Springer, I swear that idiot was painting the damned table with his food instead of eating it. Shitty brat." He grumbled. The light, easy-going chuckle that reached his ears made his chest swell and he frowned thoughtfully at the sensation.

"Don't worry Captain Clean, I'll make sure he doesn't make a mess next time."

"Thank the heavens I have you." He drawled out the sentence sarcastically but Mikasa easily picked out the sincerity and truth behind it. She graced him with a small, radiant and gentle smile and he was momentarily stunned by the simplistic beauty of it. White and even teeth just barely peeked out from behind plump lips while glossy black hair framed her lovely pale skin. Beautiful, stormy grey eyes were open windows only for him and he could see the warmth and comfort she took from the moment. Taking her face in and committing the sight to memory as he had done many a time before, Levi came to realize that he was probably the only person to ever see Mikasa Ackerman so pure and unguarded. His chest swelled with masculine pride and a strong wave of possession overtook him. He wanted her smile for his eyes only, he wanted to cherish every moment they spent together, he wanted to spend every day like this with her, and most importantly he wanted her to stop thinking of Jaeger all the time.

He blinked a moment, feeling conflicted. This was just all part of that natural advancement in their relationship right? It seemed to be the logical solution at least.

Levi was by no means a shitty emotional sap but he felt like he might spontaneously combust if he had to keep repressing these impulses and feelings. On any other day he would have rolled his eyes at the absurdity of it all, he probably would have mocked himself as well.

Yet it was in that exact moment on that seemingly insignificant day that the Lance Corporal realized that he might possibly be in love with this woman worth a hundred soldiers.

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	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the second instillation of Pocket Watch! I realized I didn't specify as to whether this would be a multi-chaptered story, the answer to that is yes! This will probably be no longer than 10 chapters at the most. With that being said, I hope everyone enjoys chapter 2!**

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Levi hadn't held very high expectations in regards to love. He didn't believe he would ever have to deal with it. Love was for emotional brats who didn't have to deal with watching out for every single shit-for-brains soldier in the Corps, for people who didn't have a dark past shadowing them and making them relive unimaginable horrors night after night. He didn't have time for love and quite frankly he was a hundred percent sure he didn't deserve love. Yet oddly enough here he was; dealing with these stupidly mushy feelings towards someone who had gone from a shitty brat, to subordinate, to comrade, to close friend, and finally to prospective significant other. Next thing you know, Hanji would end up marrying one of those damned moronic titans she keeps experimenting on.

But love was turning out to be pretty damn shitty in his opinion.

Firstly, love hadn't made those insanely distracting dreams go away like he had expected them to; far from it in fact. Once he had reluctantly accepted that he just might maybe possibly love Mikasa they got worse; far, _far_ , worse. His dreams were more vivid, racier, and more extreme. Much to his horror he was often dreaming about some kinky shit he hadn't even realized he was interested in; or was even anatomically possible for that matter, women just couldn't possibly bend that way. One dream had been so particularly vivid and obscene he had been forced to avoid Mikasa for a whole day while he tried to get his retarded hormones under control or else she would have found herself pinned against the wall of the nearest storage room. He had been lucky to have a shit ton of paperwork that day to act as a legitimate excuse. Had he been actually testing this shifty feeling, it would have lost a good chunk of points for encouraging such lewd thoughts.

Love also didn't stop those little stomach flops he got when she brushed against him while reaching for something; or when she leaned against him because she was tired and needed support; or even when she absentmindedly played with his long, spidery, fingers on a lazy day. It was actually quite the contrary. Love had turned those stupid little stomach flops into full blown stomach convulsions. It was like eating bad food or something equally as uncomfortable and Levi honestly wondered if love had a previous reputation for making people constipated or for causing extreme diarrhea. It required literal effort to keep himself from twitching or shying away from her touch and Levi was astounded at the level of sheer irrationality and loss of control that this emotion was throwing him. He _wanted_ to touch her, _very badly_. It was completely unfair of this stupid feeling to try and make him move away with his face flaming and red.

The jealousy too, don't even get him started. He could handle little patches of annoyance here and there. He could maybe understand the very tips of his ears burning as he silently seethed when another man got too close but now, now it was hell. He was speaking with all seriousness to, it was like someone ignited the flames of hell around his feet when some cocky bastard had the audacity to try and speak to her. Once a man had held her attention in a conversation for nearly seven minutes and Levi felt as if someone had dumped a load of titan blood on him because he could feel _something_ in him boiling. To make matters even more ridiculous, it was _Kirschtein_ she had been talking to, what was there to be jealous about that fucking horse-face?

 _Nothing_ , absolutely nothing! He was hardly even considered a man!

It's not like he could get rid of these horrendously distracting inconveniences either, he had tried. Yet every time he resolved to back down, said he would keep it professional, promised to not look at her that way, he just couldn't. Because that damned beautiful smile of hers would bounce around in his mind and so many sacred and precious moments that the two of them had shared would echo obnoxiously in his head. Because if he went for it, those moments could become even more precious and special. Because if he backed down then someone else would take her and that was a notion that drove him even crazier than any dream, stomach cramp, or bratty soldier.

Apparently you just couldn't win against this stupid emotion. It was like its own force of nature or something just as equally troublesome.

Levi sighed and ran a hand slowly over his face and through his hair. He stared at his office, needing a distraction. A few minutes later when everything in his office was quite literally sparkling clean, he realized he still needed something to distract him. The logical strategist in him knew it would be wise to discuss this with someone before he exploded or something as equally unpleasant. The problem with that was he had about three people he considered close enough friends to discuss his problems with.

One of them was the cause of his current uncharacteristically irrational behavior and he was convinced Hanji had some sort of mental disorder. Which left him with one option.

Levi stood and exited his office.

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Commander Erwin Smith sat quietly in his office doing paperwork. The only sounds in the room being the scratch of pens as the work was completed at what seemed to be an agonizingly slow pace. Occasionally the blonde man glanced up curiously to examine the other occupant of his office for exactly three seconds before he would continue with his work.

Almost three hours ago Levi had entered his office unannounced, plopped down into a seat, and started doing paperwork, the whole time never stating a word. Of course Erwin wasn't complaining but he had known Levi for a long time, the man simply didn't sit down to assist with paperwork out of the goodness of his heart (he rarely did anything out of the goodness of his heart if Erwin was being honest here). In fact this routine had become a regular thing for the Lance Corporal to do when there was something he needed to get off his mind. And usually the longer it took him to speak, the more deeply it had been troubling him. It was odd though, Levi was most often found in the company of Mikasa Ackerman nowadays. Erwin had figured he would have spoken to her about this problem. The scratching of pens continued for another thirty minutes. The commander stole another quick glance and was baffled.

Levi had never been silent for this long.

Had the day finally come then? Was Levi actually sitting down specifically to help with the paperwork? Commander Erwin was ready to hug his corporal, this may be the happiest day of his life. The loads of paperwork that could be divided up, the possibility of free-time sitting so tantalizingly close-

"I think I'm in love with Ackerman." Erwin dropped his pen, perfect eyebrows sky high, not quite prepared for that blunt bombshell. All thoughts of free time flew out the window in a hypothetical explosion of coherency and discretion. The Scouting Legion Commander's mind reeled and it took him a few minutes to organize his thoughts into a cohesive answer.

"…"

"Come again?" Levi scowled.

"There's no fucking way I'm repeating that."

"Right..." Erwin cleared his throat and contemplated his subordinate carefully for a moment. Levi wasn't the type to associate himself with women romantically. He wasn't the type to associate himself with anyone for that matter. There were several reasons he could disapprove of this confession immediately and nip it on the bud: liabilities on missions, distractions in training, conflict in squads; the list went on. But these two were the best of the best, the Hope of Humanity and the Woman worth a Hundred Soldiers. If anyone was capable of discarding personal relations on the battlefield and maintaining professional boundaries in public it was these two. Frankly, Erwin saw no problems with the match and honestly was tempted to call it cute. Which made him wonder why Levi looked like he had something crawling in his pants, it would have been humorous had the corporal not had such an annoyed aura surrounding him. Scratch that, it was still pretty funny.

"So?" Levi prompted irritably. Erwin blinked.

"So what?"

"So what do I do? How do I make the stupid things go away?" The commander sighed at such juvenile rationale, poor socially stunted Levi had never learned about the abstract wonders of emotions.

"Do you _want_ them to go away?" That seemed to throw Levi for a loop. He was silent for a moment.

"No…"

"Then the intelligent place to start would probably be to tell her how you feel."

" _Fuckin' mushy bullshit."_ Levi muttered under his breath. "There's no point in that, all she does is stare at fucking Jaeger." He said louder. Erwin met his subordinate's gaze thoughtfully.

"Prove to her that you're the better man." Levi shot him a dirty look.

"Of course I'm better than that idiot titan shifter. Whose side are you on?" Erwin rolled his eyes.

"This isn't a war Levi, there aren't sides. You just need to _prove_ it. Show her that you're better than Eren."

"How in the hell am I supposed to do that?" Erwin shrugged.

"That's something you'll have to think up on your own." Levi grumbled to himself before he stood up. As the shorter man exited his office, the commander let a crooked grin etch its way onto his face. He didn't bother to pick his pen back up, instead he spun in his chair to stare thoughtfully out the window. Things would undoubtedly become more interesting around here.

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 **Please leave a review if the mood strikes you :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello! Here is the third installment of Pocket Watch! Enjoy!**

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" _Prove it_ he says. Fucking prove it. How the hell do you prove it?" Levi was, as many frightened soldiers could tell, in a foul mood. His incoherent grumblings had every person he passed skirting around him or flattening themselves against the walls as the irritate man stalked by. Of course, he was hardly in the state of mind to take notice of them, annoyed as he was and grouching up a storm.

What did stupid Erwin know about love anyway? He probably hasn't ever even _touched_ a woman. The corporal scowled to himself and retracted the previous thought. Yeah right, Erwin and his stupid perfect eyebrows have probably touched loads of women. But how on earth was he supposed to prove to  
Mikasa that he was better than Jaeger? It was obvious he was athletically superior, more intelligent, a better soldier and a better leader. Hell, being as close with Mikasa as long as he had he was positive he now _knew_ her better than Jaeger.

Did Jeager know what Mikasa's preferred beverage was? Did he know that her favorite part of venturing outside the walls was to admire the fluffy clouds when they were painted across the sky? Did he know she enjoyed rainy days over sunny because it reminded her of cozy evenings with her parents? Did he know she had nightmares about losing her parents, then the Jaegers, and finally Arlert and the brat himself? _Did he?!_

Levi swore angrily and profusely under his breath as he attempted to reign his irrational emotions under control.

He couldn't even begin to fathom what was so great about that damned titan-shifter, so what was it that had Mikasa pining after him?

Did she think Jaeger was better looking?

Levi scoffed. That kid probably hadn't used a hairbrush in years. Plus he was so damn oblivious to everything around him, the idea to be aesthetically appealing for the opposite sex might as well be in some godforsaken ancient language for all that brat knew. The kid was all around scruffy looking. Not to blow his own horn or anything, but Levi knew for a fact that his angular face and sharp blue eyes had turned women into frothing piles of putty on more than one occasion; Jaeger had nothing on that.

Levi highly doubted she was interested in Jaeger for his mental prowess. The kid had the attention span and temperament of a five year old. Levi didn't exaggerate when he called his squad brats. With the exception of Mikasa and probably Arlert, working with his squad was glorified babysitting duty. He wasn't even being biased! They may get the job done but it took about two hours of pushing and shoving for it to happen.

Erwin sure did know how to give useless, shitty advice. The bastard was probably just getting a kick out of messing with him.

His internal monologue was short-lived as he reached his office. Letting out an annoyed sigh, he twisted the knob and opened the door, stepping into his sparsely furnished office.

There he found Mikasa rummaging through his drawers. For some reason he felt the most unbelievably annoying urge to check his appearance. He shook his head slightly in irritation and addressed the pretty woman in front of him.

"You know, if you wanted my underwear _that_ badly all you had to do was ask." Mikasa didn't even turn her head.

"And have to endure the hassle of trying to please your impossibly high cleaning standards? No thanks." He chuckled slightly at that, she was such a smart-ass.

"What exactly are you looking for?" This time she did glance over her shoulder, having the decency to at least look a tad bit sheepish at being caught going through his underwear drawer.

"Bandages, I ran out and you how Hanji gets when she's unoccupied so I couldn't get any from her." He nodded in understanding, Hanji had developed quite an interest in Mikasa's genetics upon realizing she was the last human of Asian descent in existence. When the scientist was bored she often pestered Mikasa for blood samples and other things of the sort. Mikasa nor Levi could really understand what Hanji hoped to accomplish by fooling around with some blood or hair samples and to be perfectly honest, Mikasa wasn't too inclined to find out. If anything, Levi could understand the desire to avoid a restless Hanji and a room full of needles.

"Second drawer on your right. What do you need bandages for?" He wondered if she had injured herself. If that was the case he would have to take over the first aid, Mikasa hardly ever took care of her injuries properly. Well, the same could be said for himself. They had developed a mutual understanding that they would rely on each other to make sure neither would drop dead sporadically via poorly treated wounds.

"I'm not injured." She said as if reading his mind. Sensing his unasked question in the silence that followed, she elaborated.

"I just need to re-bandage my wrist."

"Oh? Allow me then." Her wrist had always been a point of fascination for him even before they had grown close. He could remember observing her closely in the summers. All of the soldiers would shed every single article of clothing they could while preserving modesty to try and stay cool yet she had always kept her wrist wrapped up snugly, and always wore that damn scarf. The two items had been a constant ever since he had first laid eyes on her. At first he had suspected injury but he doubted even the prodigy could utilize the 3DMG as well as she did with an impaired wrist, he wouldn't put it past her to try though. He had never pressed the issue despite his curiosity, always waiting for her to address it. Although they were extremely close, it had taken awhile before she had opened up to him about it; showing him the marking of her clan that had been etched onto her right wrist. Even then she hadn't known much about the mark herself. All her mother had told her was that it was tradition in her clan and she was to pass it onto her own children. Nevertheless Levi had been mesmerized by the marking. He recalled that he had spent what seemed like hours staring at the simple yet intricate mark, occasionally tracing the pattern.

They sat in silence as Levi bandaged the scar. Mikasa was well aware of his interest in it and did not remark as he traced the design with his long, spidery, fingers for what was probably the hundredth time since he had first seen it. Mikasa didn't mind, it sent a pleasant chill down her spine when he did so. Levi took in the small circle in the center, ghosting over the sharp angles and sloping lines that created the design. It enamored him if he was being honest with himself.

He thought of the pain and confusion she must have gone through when receiving it. In a weird way, it made him feel closer to her. The thought was ridiculous and slightly sadistic, as well as creepy if he was pressed for the truth, but knowing that her past had been dark, brutal and filled with uncertainty about who you are like his own had been one of the reasons he had been able to form a bond with her. With the loss of her parents had come the loss of so much knowledge on the traditions of the clan her mother had hailed from. He knew Mikasa would probably give anything to have something other than such a painful reminder of what she was missing.

Suddenly it was like a light bulb had gone off above his head.

" _Prove it."_

He stood up abruptly and Mikasa jumped ever so slightly, looking a bit bewildered at his actions. He strode over to the large desk that occupied a solid portion of his room and snatched a file from the top drawer. Tucking it in his survey corps standard issued jacket he made a beeline for the door, a single purpose echoing clearly in his mind. He grabbed a non-descript cloak on his way out the door.

"Levi, where the hell are you going?" Mikasa asked, words colored by confusion.

"I have some personal business to attend to. If Erwin asks, tell him I'm taking his damned advice. If that idiot Jaeger comes looking for training again, tell him I'm dead. I trust you can handle any pressing paperwork that may come in for me." He was out the door before she could say another word and Mikasa was left staring incredulously at his departure. It was a moment before she realized he had just spontaneously left for no apparent reason. Levi _never_ had personal business. In fact, that was usually what he just told people when he wanted to be left alone in his office so he could have her undivided attention. So if _she_ wasn't the personal business then what was? Mikasa held a thoughtful look on her face until she realized that he just spontaneously left, _and_ had saddled her with all his paperwork in the process. She scowled, face twisting in irritation that concealed a small bit of fondness.

"That short bastard." She grumbled to herself.

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 **I hope you enjoyed! Sorry the chapters are short but I feel like I'm getting the story across despite that :) Please review!**


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